Sixty years later and 1,500 miles away . . . Bob Toski felt like he had won it all over again.

The Haydenville native watched from hometown Boca Raton, Fla., as his golf student Ken Duke won the Travelers Championship Sunday in Cromwell, Conn.

“I won there in 1953, at Wethersfield Country Club,” Toski said. “The Insurance City Open was my first win. I felt like I did it all over again.”

Duke’s first PGA Tour victory came four years after he started working with Toski, a member of the PGA Golf Professional Hall of Fame and World Golf Teachers halls of fame.

“This is a great milestone in my life,” Toski said. “How can an 86-year-old man take someone in his 40s and teach him how to win his first tour event? This is my time to brag too.”

Toski said Duke spent some time with him last week in Florida, but added that the two don’t work together as often as they should.

“He’s made some money out there, but he can take too much for granted and I didn’t see him for awhile,” Toski said. “Then his game went bad, he almost lost his card. But like a guy who’s dying, he only comes to see the doctor when he needs to be saved. The doctor never calls the patient.”

Toski said Duke is capable of moving to the next level, but he needs to putt better and at a more consistent level at the late “breakthrough” age of 44.

“On 18 (in regulation), he made a great putt from 50 feet, that was not an easy place to get down in 2 from,” Toski said of the 72nd hole Sunday. “His shot out of the rough there, I wasn’t seeing him make 4 from there.

“And then in the playoff, he made a great shot there. And the 3-footer to win it? Did you see how long he looked at it? You never know how the dog is going to jump up at you in that spot.”

Duke’s victory, his first in 187 career starts, at TPC River Highlands lands him in the field at the British Open and the Masters.

“He made $1.1 million and he’ll make another in a heartbeat,” Toski said. “And he has a two-year exemption. This opens doors from him at age 44.”

Toski expect to see Duke, again in the coming weeks, to celebrate the victory.

“There was a lot of personal incentive there for me,” Toski said. “And you saw him pump his fist there, after he won it? He was looking at me, saying ‘Tosk, I did it for you.’”

Toski said he plans to return to Western Massachusetts for a brief period to visit family members in July.

JUNIOR NOTES: Parker Riordan (Twin Hills CC), Jacob Zaranek (Crumpin-Fox Club), Drew Quirk (Longmeadow CC), Jeff Lecrlerc of Feeding Hills and CC of Wilbraham pair Matt Gurski and Stephen Hunt each advanced through a qualifier for the Massachusetts Junior Amateur. Nine qualifying spots were available at Agawam Municipal GC on Monday. The championship will be held at Essex County Club on July 29-31 . . . Entry forms for The Republican’s 37th Junior Golf Tournament have been made available at www.masslive.com/golf and in Sunday’s print editions. Dates are Aug. 6-7 at Franconia and Veterans golf courses.